April 29, 2007

It was going strong for a year but I no longer have time to maintain it. I can’t even get in to post. So I am removing the link and will let the forum die a slow death. If anyone wants to start a thread on a new topic here on the blog, email it to me and I will set it up if it seems a good idea.

Dear SinaSourSauce,
Maybe you could save yourself some time and stop visiting blogs you don’t like. By the way, I’m not willing to believe that there ever was a post deleted here just because of a disagreement. This blog even tolerates trolls like Maths.

Raj, SinaSource is banned. He is a true troll, even to the extent of going onto other blogs to post his grievances about me, like one beret-wearing reader used to do. He just doesn’t get it – this is my site, and he is a guest. If people want to ridicule me they can do so from their own blog. I don’t have to provide them bandwidth on the site I payed for. I believe in free speech – everyone should have the right to open their site and run it as they choose. Some sites don’t allow any comments, others tightly monitor their comments. I have a very open comment policy with very few rules, which is why we get so many divergent viewpoints here. SinaSource has bad intentions and wants to destroy the site. I have no obligation to hand my site over to him. He knows he is banned yet he keeps coming back to do the same thing. Either he is jealous or unbalanced or playing games. Please junk his comments as soon as they appear. Others like CLC and jxie and even hong xin have been far more critical of me, but I’ve never even thought of deleting them, because they don’t meet my definition of trolls (and this is my site and I set the definitions, and nearly everyone here understands and abides – you have to work hard to get banned). Criticism and argument is one thing. Belittling and mocking is quite another. And SinaSource knows it. He’ll be back, too, because he’s obsessed and he’s determined. Please handle with impunity. Thanks.

Hi — I was shocked to see the recently announced “closing”, then immensely gratified to see you were only speaking of the forum — not the blog itself.

It’s a good idea (to eliminate the forum). I was an active poster in a pre-Internet BBS-based political forum (RIME), and my experience is that while there are many good days, eventually any discussion forum just becomes a time sponge. The late Theodore Sturgeon (sci-fi writer) coined an aphorism that came to be known as Sturgeon’s Law, to wit: “Ninety percent of everything is crap.” Doubly true of forums on the off days.

Besides, as a person married to a Chinese-born partner, I’m not interested in intramural discussions. I’m keen on perspectives about China, about Taiwan, especially about how badly the US’ image has suffered during the Bush debacle, and hopes/prospects for the future. I may also be the first person in my town to buy a Chinese-built car when they start importing them here.

About

A peculiar hybrid of personal journal, dilettantish punditry, pseudo-philosophy and much more, from an Accidental Expat who has made his way from Hong Kong to Beijing to Taipei and finally back to Beijing for reasons that are still not entirely clear to him…